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East meets West with a bang in “Golden Child,” David Henry Hwang’s 1996 play at the Signature Theatre, which has dedicated a season to the “M. Butterfly” playwright. Set in early 20th-century China, it shows a traditional polygamous household in turmoil once its patriarch gets a taste of modern ways.

Relayed as a flashback by an elderly woman to her young grandson, the story begins with the return of Tieng-Bin (Greg Watanabe) to his three wives after years in the Philippines. He’s become enamored of Western ways, and orders that his “golden child” daughter, Eng Ahn (Annie Q), be liberated from her painful foot bindings.

His tradition-loving first wife, Siu-Yong (Julyana Soelistyo), will have none of it. “No one ever said that feminine beauty was pretty,” she snaps.

Having brought home a British missionary (Matthew Maher), Tieng-Bin decides that he and his wives will be baptized as Christians. But his conversion has consequences.

For all its serious themes, “Golden Child” has plenty of one-liners, some of them quite funny. When the newly returned Tieng-Bin chooses to sleep with his youngest, prettiest wife (Lesley Hu), his first wife is unfazed.

“That’s what they’re for,” she tells the second wife (Jennifer Lim). “To save the rest of us all that muss and fuss.”

Much like the situation it depicts, the play tries uneasily to meld Western and Eastern styles, especially in its mysticism-laden second act. But director Leigh Silverman’s well-acted, visually elegant production shows the piece certainly deserves another look, which is exactly the point of the Signature’s worthy mission.